


Tooth and Claw

by mrstater



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M, Gift Giving, Honeymoon, Knifeplay, Marriage, Married Couple, Married Sex, Nudity, Pre-Canon, Presents, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:00:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrstater/pseuds/mrstater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unexpected gift from Lynesse's new husband leads to even more unexpected expressions of gratitude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tooth and Claw

The ship Jorah hired to take his new bride from Lannisport carried them as far as Seagard, where they tarried a few days while he looked out another that would take them the remainder of the way to Bear Island, or at least as far as Deepwoode Motte, where he knew his first wife's kin would provide them a boat to cross the Bay of Ice.

Though he apologized for the delay in their journey-- _My lady must be anxious to see her new home--_ Lynesse secretly did not mind the reprieve from cramped quarters and unvarying galley fare. Mayhaps her husband--how she loved the sound of that!--could even procure a vessel a little more in the style to which she was accustomed to travel, befitting the Lady of Bear Island. After all, the Mallisters of Seagard had been recently assaulted by ironborn longships in the quashed Greyjoy Rebellion, and no doubt owed much to the hero of Pyke for their present peace. Lord Jason guested them now, did he not?

Luxuriating in the feather bed while Jorah went down to the quay-- _Don't you want me to accompany you?_ she'd asked drowsily when he'd woken early. He'd  kissed her softly and replied, _The fishing boats will be in with their night's catch. I wouldn't want you to step in anything that might ruin your fine slippers and skirts. Besides,_ he added, a twinkle in his eye, _If I take you with me, you'll ask me to buy you pretty trinkets and I'll have no coin left for a ship._ Hooking her fingers through the laces of his green surcoat, she pulled him down for another kiss, pausing as their lips just touched to murmur, _Won't you buy me pretty trinkets even if I'm_ not _with you?--s_ he imagined him speaking to the captain of a merchant ship--the ones from the Free Cities were always so pretty, and carried such exotic cargo. Not only would Jorah secure passage for them, but he might also play to the man's gallantry with the tale of their meeting and marriage, and get the captain's own cabin for the use of a highborn lady and her lord the war hero.

Extending her arms across the span of the mattress, she arched her back, cat-like, and yawned. A wider berth would suit nicely, if the second leg of the voyage was to find her and Jorah in it as frequently as the first. If she had her say, it would; so far in their week of wedded bliss, her husband proved disinclined to argue with her.

"Is my lady wife a madwoman, that she laughs alone in her bedchamber?"

Lynesse turned her head to see Jorah's frame filling the doorway of the bedchamber. Though his eyes were narrowed beneath heavy knit brows, the corners of his mouth quirked upward in an expression of amusement. 

"I was just considering what you might have bought me at the quay."

"As I told you, passage on a ship," he replied, stepping around the door and nudging it shut with his boot.

"Not a thing usually carried in a sack," said Lynesse, eying the bundle slung over his shoulder.

Jorah's grin widened, revealing white teeth against the dark of his beard, as he approached the bed. "I might have seen a pretty trinket."

Lynesse's laughter rang out as she sat upright in bed, letting the sheets fall down around her waist as she grabbed for the bag. "I told you my presence was not required for you to buy me presents." 

His eyes on her bare bouncing breasts, Jorah replied huskily, "My wife knows me well after just a se'nnight of marriage."  

"And my husband knows--"

Lynesse cut herself short as she drew out of the sack a belt and sheath.

"A knife," she said, her voice lilting upward with the hint of a question, though she did remember to smile.

Not precisely what she would call a _pretty trinket_ , but then she noticed the delicate pattern of vines worked into the leather, and a pair of green gemstones winking on either side of the knife handle to form the eyes of the bear carved in the ivory hilt. She would have preferred emeralds set in a pair of earrings, but--

"It's beautiful," she said, not untruthfully. She turned it over in her hands, and drew the gleaming blade out a little ways out from the leather.

"Every she-bear ought to have claws," said Jorah with a shrug. "Of course yours must be as beautiful as every part of you is."

For an instant, the hairs of her neck stood on end with the prickle of goosebumps--Did she have need of a weapon where he was taking her?--then Lynesse  brushed the alarming thought aside, as she did the bedclothes, swinging her legs over the side of the bed to stand naked before her husband.

Her heart quickened as Jorah's dark eyes watched her every moment intently from the bed as she buckled the belt around her narrow waist. The extra length tickled her inner thigh, but the weight of the knife in its pouch at her hip sent a surge through her which she wondered wasn't a bit like what a she-bear felt when her nostrils pricked with the scent of prey. Her fingers curled around the hilt--a perfect fit--unsheathing it fully as she sauntered to stand between his knees, callused hands cupping her buttocks.

She heard the intake of his breath, saw the swell of his throat as he swallowed hard, but his gaze never wavered to the dagger in her hand even when she slipped it beneath the laces of his surcoat--though his fingers did press harder into her buttocks as she cut the laces asunder with a single flick of the knife.

"You might have untied it," he said, a tautness in his voice which she didn't quite know the meaning of.

"Would a she-bear have untied it?" Lynesse said flirtatiously, but she didn't give his shirt the same treatment as the surcoat after she pushed it off his shoulders, instead undoing the ties with her fingers until she revealed his collarbone, either side of which bore two faint rows of even marks.

"Are not the she-bear's teeth sharp enough that you arm her as well?" she asked.

Jorah said nothing as she traced the point of the knife along the edge of the bone until she came to the soft part of his shoulder. When he hitched one eyebrow upward, she gave the blade another swipe. Immediately a thin line of red appeared amidst the tanned skin and coarse black hair. Then, with a low sound in his throat, his hands gripped her backside, slinging her around until he had her pinned to the bed beneath him. Lynesse offered her assistance with the straining laces of his breeches, but he wrestled the knife from her, laying it on the bedside table, and told her he trusted her teeth more... 

~*~

"My lady approves of her gift, then?" asked Jorah afterward, as they lay in each other's arms, Lynesse having retrieved her knife from the table to admire the craftsmanship in the bright morning light that streamed in through the leaded glass windows.

"Almost as much as you do," she replied, snipping off a bit of his ample black chest hair.

"Ouch!" Jorah hissed, and with a giggle, Lynesse pressed a kiss to his chest before she pushed up on one elbow to look him in the eye.

"I'm thinking of calling it Smallclaw. Because it matches Longclaw."

He looked at her for a long moment, then his chest swelled beneath her as a grin tilted slowly across his face. His arms snaked around her waist above the dagger belt she still wore.

"Mated blades for Lord and Lady Mormont, eh? I like the sound of that. Only…I'm not certain _Smallclaw_ quite does it justice."

"Why not?"

"Well--that little knife may have cut my flesh, but your love pierces my heart."

"Such pretty words," said Lynesse, letting him draw her down with him again. "Mayhaps it's I who ought to give you gifts--Oh!" She pulled back from his attempt to kiss her, suddenly remembering what had led to all this. "Tell me of the ship you've found to take us to our island!"  

 

 


End file.
